An episodic account of divine personhood

Abstract

I present Ned Markosian's episodic account of identity under a sortal, and then use it to sketch a new model of the Trinity. I show that the model can be used to solve at least three important Trinitarian puzzles: the traditional ‘logical problem of the Trinity’, a less-discussed problem that has been dubbed the ‘problem of triunity’, and a problem about the divine processions that has been enjoying increased attention in the recent literature.

The persons of the Trinity are themselves triune: a reply to Mooney

“…4.Mooney (2020) puts forward an episodic account of divine personhood. On this view, it tuns out that each person is technically triune, since each person ‘is the divine substance that participates in three distinct episodes of personhood at once’ ( ibid ., 10).…”

“…9.The language used by Mooney (2018, 3) is that ‘Triunity is a property included within the divine nature.’ He uses this language because he construes the divine nature abstractly, in terms of the set of properties individually necessary and jointly sufficient for divinity. Since I wish to be neutral with respect to whether the divine nature is abstract or concrete, I talk instead of the fact that – on my view – triunity is essential to divinity, by which I mean that it is impossible for one to have the divine nature without being triune.…”